Nissan’s new Leaf Plus EV has improved range, faster motor

Nissan's next Leaf looks to fix the problems of last year's model

The newly announced Nissan Leaf Plus improves upon the battery and power of last year’s Leaf while bringing it up to the standard of vehicles like Tesla’s Model 3.

Nissan’s Leaf has been a staple in the electric vehicle (EV) market for the last few years, but the vehicle started to lag behind the competition chiefly due to its 242km range.

The Leaf Plus seeks to improves on last year’s model with 363 kilometres of range and a 150kW motor that can output around 200 horsepower.

For comparison, the Chevy Bolt’s range is roughly 383km, while the Model 3 can drive for around 499km-per-charge.

The car will now charge faster than before and Nissan says that drivers can expect similar charge times compared to the old Leaf even though the battery is 55 percent larger.

MobileSyrup’s review of the 2018 Leaf found that it took approximately 40 minutes to get the car’s battery from zero percent to 80 percent.

The ‘Intelligent Mobility’ infotainment centre is also getting a software update to make it easier to use, and a hardware update to bump the touch-screen size up to eight inches.

Nissan has also tweaked the Leaf’s ‘e-Pedal’ technology so that it results in smoother stops and starts.

According to Nissan, reversing using the e-Pedal should be much smoother than before.

The e-Pedal is a system that allows the driver to decelerate by simply taking their foot off of the accelerator pedal. The vehicle can even hold itself still on an incline without the need for the driver to hold the brakes down.

Nissan hasn’t released a timeline outlining when the new Leaf Plus will come to Canada, but the vehicle is coming to the States in spring 2019, so it will likely come to Canada around the same time.